The maple leaf and the colour red, dropped from the logo design of the Toronto Blue Jays, are about to find a new home on the uniforms of the Toronto Raptors.

The National Basketball Association team will unveil a second road uniform for the coming season that will incorporate the colours red, white and black, along with a maple leaf displayed prominently on the team's shorts.

"This is not at all, in any way, a reaction to what the Blue Jays have done," Raptors president Richard Peddie said yesterday. "These sorts of design changes have to be submitted to the league for its approval like a year in advance.

"We're not slamming the Blue Jays. We're just going in a different direction."

Last week, the Blue Jays took heat after they unveiled a new logo that was missing two of the key elements that many felt defined the baseball team as Canadian -- the colour red and the maple leaf.

The club's new logo, in full use next year, features a stern-looking bird with the word "Jays" in what the team describes as "blue, metallic silvers and metallic graphite with black-and-white accents."

The Raptors are a couple of weeks away from launching the new uniforms, but Mr. Peddie yesterday revealed the news about the colours and the maple leaf.

The team's name will run across the front of the jersey in place of the city's name that is on the current road uniforms, which are purple and black.

Mr. Peddie said that he hopes the new look will help the Raptors in their continued efforts to market themselves as Canada's NBA team.

"With the departure in Vancouver of the Grizzlies we really want to be thought of as Canada's team, not just Toronto's team," Mr. Peddie said.

By incorporating red and white into the uniform's design, Mr. Peddie said, the Raptors are celebrating their "Canadian roots."

"It's drawing on the success of the Canadian hockey program," he said.

"The red and white is very much a part of the hockey history of this country, so we're leaning on that."

Although the new uniform is reserved for the road, the NBA has given the Raptors permission to model the outfits for the first time at home in their Oct. 29 season opener against the New Jersey Nets at the Air Canada Centre.

"We do that because we think there's no better place to show a new part of your identity than to your home fans," Christopher Arena, the NBA's senior director of apparel, said in an interview. "To show it first to your home fans is a special thing to do."

After that, Mr. Arena said, the Raptors will be required to wear the new road jersey a minimum of 12 times during the regular season, primarily to give basketball fans ample opportunity to identify with the new look.

Mr. Arena said it has been the league's experience that players respond favourably when a new uniform is introduced.

That is certainly something the Raptors, coming off a horrible 24-58 record of a year ago, are hoping for.

"I think it allows the players to kind of feel different and maybe take on a different characteristic every night they play," Mr. Arena said. "Not that it gets boring wearing the same uniform. I'm sure they're proud to be in the NBA, but they have some option."

hat with new secondary logo...........
http://cache.nba.com/media/raptors/c_bosh_170_030627.jpg

new jersey.....courtesy of promo for mini game ticket packages that ran in the Toronto Star.
http://members.rogers.com/r2traps/raptorsalt3rdjersey.jpg

u2sarajevo

09-12-2003, 05:21 PM

I don't get it... That's would be like the Mavericks incorporating a Bluebonnet on the logo....

????

MavsFanatik33

09-12-2003, 06:08 PM

Originally posted by: u2sarajevo
I don't get it... That's would be like the Mavericks incorporating a Bluebonnet on the logo....

????

Dallas Bluebonnets, got a nice ring to it. This is a dumb idea for Toronto, if anyone needs new logos... it's The Clippers.

Drbio

09-12-2003, 11:27 PM

I think they should have changed their name to the Craptors.

steponhens

09-13-2003, 03:10 PM

I like it. The purple doesn't really work for me. And the Mavericks did the same type of thing when they incorporated the star into their jerseys.